Player6600
June 3rd, 2002, 4:26:34 PM
SEOUL -- He was wearing a U.S. jersey -- the old, red kind, the good kind -- with MATHIS on the back. She was wearing a red Sam's Army T-shirt. Brian and Mary Kemp are a U.S. soccer couple. "A World Cup couple," as he puts it. They met in Dallas at World Cup '94, a London boy on holiday and an American girl watching her favorite sport.
Three weeks later they got married.
"We like to be spontaneous," Brian was saying on Sunday at the Nashville Club, a Yank-friendly pub in Seoul's bustling Itaewon section. No kidding. In January, Brian (a computer programmer) and Mary (a radiation therapist) asked their bosses for a four-week vacation in June so they could attend the World Cup. No such luck, they were told: Two weeks at most.
So they quit.
In February, they left their home in Miami for a year-long trip around the world. "Everyone asked us, 'Why?'" Mary says. "We said, 'Why not?'"
One thing they didn't leave behind was their passion for the U.S. national team. Over the past eight years, the Kemps have followed the Americans everywhere: to Honduras and Mexico, Guatemala and Jamaica, Barbados and Morocco. And so, as they meandered around Southeast Asia over the past four months on $30 a day, they still managed to find a way to see the U.S.'s World Cup warmup games on TV.
Their secret? "We had the videotapes sent to us," Brian says. "We'd have them address the tapes to Brian Kemp, General Post Office, Vientiane, Laos, or wherever we might be. You go there, show them your passport and pick up your tapes. It's amazing how well it works."
Well, most of the time. In Laos, they eagerly popped their tapes into a bar's VCR, only to hear audio but see no video. The VCR used a different format. (They eventually watched them at a karaoke bar across the border with a curious Vietnamese family.) In Ho Chi Minh City, they went to the post office for seven straight days in a futile effort to pick up copies of three more U.S. friendlies, against Germany, Mexico and Ireland. "Eventually, we figured out they had confiscated the videos," Brian says.
Finally, in Bangkok, they sucked it up and checked into the pricey Intercontinental Hotel, home of the only VHS machine they could find in town. "Just to see the games," Brian says. "We closed the curtains, ordered room service and watched all three games back-to-back. Normally, I'm bitching and moaning about Jack [Edwards] and Ty [Keough, the ESPN commentators], but I was so happy to hear their voices that day."
Of course, the Kemps have had other adventures during their travels, including encounters with scorpions, leeches and snakes. In Vietnam, where the locals somehow didn't know this MATHIS chap, they rappelled down cliffs with former officers from the Viet Cong. For more than a week, they bicycled through southern Cambodia and Laos. "It was all dirt roads in Laos," Mary says. "The headline in the paper one day said, ATM COMES TO LAOS."
Now they're in Seoul, anxiously awaiting the Americans' opener Wednesday against Portugal, worried about whether the ailing Mathis will start. After the Cup they'll hit the pavement again, visiting China, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, India, Oman, Tanzania, England, and then -- after a year on the road -- return home in Miami.
"Hopefully, we can get jobs when we get back," Mary says. Still, when you're the most passionate fans of American soccer, there are no worries, no regrets. "This trip," she says, her smile extending almost all the way to her auburn pigtails, "is the best thing we've ever done."
Three weeks later they got married.
"We like to be spontaneous," Brian was saying on Sunday at the Nashville Club, a Yank-friendly pub in Seoul's bustling Itaewon section. No kidding. In January, Brian (a computer programmer) and Mary (a radiation therapist) asked their bosses for a four-week vacation in June so they could attend the World Cup. No such luck, they were told: Two weeks at most.
So they quit.
In February, they left their home in Miami for a year-long trip around the world. "Everyone asked us, 'Why?'" Mary says. "We said, 'Why not?'"
One thing they didn't leave behind was their passion for the U.S. national team. Over the past eight years, the Kemps have followed the Americans everywhere: to Honduras and Mexico, Guatemala and Jamaica, Barbados and Morocco. And so, as they meandered around Southeast Asia over the past four months on $30 a day, they still managed to find a way to see the U.S.'s World Cup warmup games on TV.
Their secret? "We had the videotapes sent to us," Brian says. "We'd have them address the tapes to Brian Kemp, General Post Office, Vientiane, Laos, or wherever we might be. You go there, show them your passport and pick up your tapes. It's amazing how well it works."
Well, most of the time. In Laos, they eagerly popped their tapes into a bar's VCR, only to hear audio but see no video. The VCR used a different format. (They eventually watched them at a karaoke bar across the border with a curious Vietnamese family.) In Ho Chi Minh City, they went to the post office for seven straight days in a futile effort to pick up copies of three more U.S. friendlies, against Germany, Mexico and Ireland. "Eventually, we figured out they had confiscated the videos," Brian says.
Finally, in Bangkok, they sucked it up and checked into the pricey Intercontinental Hotel, home of the only VHS machine they could find in town. "Just to see the games," Brian says. "We closed the curtains, ordered room service and watched all three games back-to-back. Normally, I'm bitching and moaning about Jack [Edwards] and Ty [Keough, the ESPN commentators], but I was so happy to hear their voices that day."
Of course, the Kemps have had other adventures during their travels, including encounters with scorpions, leeches and snakes. In Vietnam, where the locals somehow didn't know this MATHIS chap, they rappelled down cliffs with former officers from the Viet Cong. For more than a week, they bicycled through southern Cambodia and Laos. "It was all dirt roads in Laos," Mary says. "The headline in the paper one day said, ATM COMES TO LAOS."
Now they're in Seoul, anxiously awaiting the Americans' opener Wednesday against Portugal, worried about whether the ailing Mathis will start. After the Cup they'll hit the pavement again, visiting China, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, India, Oman, Tanzania, England, and then -- after a year on the road -- return home in Miami.
"Hopefully, we can get jobs when we get back," Mary says. Still, when you're the most passionate fans of American soccer, there are no worries, no regrets. "This trip," she says, her smile extending almost all the way to her auburn pigtails, "is the best thing we've ever done."